


when we are parted

by mirkandmidnight



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Babies, Canon-Typical Violence, Family, Found Family, Gen, Kylo Ren Redemption, Unintentional Redemption
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-19
Updated: 2016-04-19
Packaged: 2018-06-03 04:11:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6596209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mirkandmidnight/pseuds/mirkandmidnight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Give a man a baby, and he'll probably never be the same.</p>
            </blockquote>





	when we are parted

**Author's Note:**

> Yet another au inspired by and discussed with [worldsgreatestnerd](http://worldsgreatestnerd.tumblr.com/) on tumblr. Eheheheheheh

Kylo Ren strides purposefully onto the abandoned science base, lightsaber in one hand and stormtroopers fanning out behind him like a banner. They are here under orders, Snoke's, to investigate the base and see if there is anything of use left on it.

He highly doubts that there will be, but orders are orders, and he is not eager to displease Master SNoke.

The base looks completely abandoned, derelict, and with some of the walls on the brink of collapse. The door stands ope, and inside the laboratory everything is in shambles, as if whoever was last here fled in the middle of whatever it is they were doing.

He scans the materials left out and frowns. Expense reports, somebody's lurid love letters, files on the geography of Naboo, and the genetics of Force Sensitivity, focusing specifically on Darth Vader and his family.. None of this is useful to him in the least. This doesn't tell him what the scientists were doing here or even what kind of projects they'd been working. All of it is utterly worthless.

What is he going to do now? Master Snoke has made it quite clear that he is to return with something to show for his efforts. If not, it's a whole three days wasted where he could have been practicing, working to improve and kill the call to the Light. And Kylo needs to become stronger. The events on Starkiller Base are all too indicative of that.

To think that he can have let a scavenger beat him, a chit of a girl with no training in the Force and no real experience in a duel? Kylo feels a cold fury come over him. It won't happen again. He'll train harder, get stronger, so that the next time they meet, he'll wipe the smug look off that little nobody's face.

In his fury, and without realizing it, he stands straight and flips the nearest table, letting the beakers and metal trays and papers and things fall to the floor with a shuddering groan. He stares down at it through the mask and kicks the remains of one of the beakers with a kind of grim satisfaction.

A moment later, one of the stormtroopers rushes back into the main lab. "Sir," they say, barely pausing to look at the mess at Kylo's feet. They're all used to it by now. "You may want to come and have a look at this."

He follows the stormtrooper into the next room,w here three more are crowded around a tank. Hanging suspended in a clear liquid is what appears to be a human infant. Kylo grins beneath the mask. Snoke wants interesting, does he? Well, he'll get it.

"Get it out of there and wrap it in something," he orders, voice smooth through the filter. "We have what we need."

It's a testament to how well the First order trains its soldiers that they rush to obey, not even stopping to give him a questioning look. Of course, soldiers who've been programmed from infancy to obey really aren't prone to questioning. It's part of hte reason he's a little glad they didn't decide on clones. Having that many of the same person is just unnerving.

One of the stormtroopers places the infant in his grasp, now wrapped in some kind of salvaged cloth. All of them walk out of the building and towards the transport ship.

Kylo stops, turns back to the lab, and considers. There's no reason to leave it standing, is there? They certainly don't want the Resistance finding the place. "Burn it to the ground," he says, and they turn back to his bidding.

He pulls the folds of his cloak closer around him and turns his back on the building as flames lick at its timbers. The baby is quiet in his arms as he heads for the ship, flames crackling behind him and licking the night sky with their orange tongues.

He's always liked raising a little hell.  
***  
The holo projection of Snoke stares down at him, huge, impassive, and unsettling to those unused to the Supreme Leader's sheer majesty. Kylo stares back, arms starting to ach slightly. He's holding the baby up in a two handed grip, arms up, and he still hasn't taken off the helmet. But that's not hte point, the point is since when have babies been so heavy?

"Master," he starts, but the Supreme Leader cuts him off with a gesture, leaning forward to study the infant more closely. His expression is inscrutable.

"You found this child in the abandoned laboratory, is that correct?"

"Yes, master," he replies, heart pounding in his chest to a staccato beat. Either he's done very well or very poorly, and he has no idea which it is. He hopes it's the first. The Supreme Leader's temper is short; his fits of rage legendary.

Snoke leans back and steeples his fingers under his chin. "You have done well, my apprentice," he finally says, and Kylo reels pride and a fierce joy blossom in his chest.

"Thank you, master," he says fervently.

But Snoke isn't quite finished. "I require that you look after this child personally until it can be collected."

He frowns. "Master?" It is a mistake. Snoke is not a patient man by nature, and questioning him is always incorrect.

"Take care of it personally. I will be coming to collect it, and if I am not satisfied with your care, there will be punishment." He nods. "Dismissed, Kylo Ren." And then, as suddenly as his hologram had appeared, it vanishes. Kylo can only stare at the place where the image had been.

Him? Take care of a child? THis is ridiculous, he hasn't got time to deal with this. Kylo has things to do. Like practicing lightsaber forms. Or irritating Hux. Either of those are extremely important and quite pressing.

All right, maybe he does have time, but he really doesn't want to do it. Why would the Supremem Leader even ask? He's got to experience with children; there's no reason to believe he's a competent guardian for a baby. It must be a test. That's the only logical explanation. Somehow, this is Snoke's way of testing him.

By handing him a baby? That doesn't make a lot of sense, but it's better than anything else he'll be able to come up with, and he's not given to openly disregarding orders from the Supreme Leader. How hard can it possibly be? It's just a stupid adult, right? Just then, the baby squirms in his grip and starts screaming, its entire face going red with the effort.

This is going to be harder than he'd originally thought.  
***  
Okay, maybe "a lot harder" is something of an understatement. Maybe Kylo should have used the phrase, "incredibly, unbelievably difficult, what the kriff was Supreme Leader Snoke thinking?"

Maybe that's more accurate.

He's carrying the baby around the Finalizer, still completely masked and hooded, and the Force-damned thing is still crying. He's holding it at arm's length, trying to convey through the mask that he is perfectly in control fo this situation, thank you very much.

The shrieking continues, rising in pitch and cutting to the center of his skull. Kylo winces. What does it want from him?

A moment later, a familiar chrome suited figure approaches him, blaster slung across her back. Somehow, face completely obscured through her helmet, Captain Phasma manages to convey quite clearly that she has had enough of this nonsense.

"Lord Ren," she says, voice dripping with displeasure. "What are you doing with that here in the middle of my troops' training session?"

Kylo looks around, and somehow he's managed to wind up in the training gym. That explains quite a lot, actually. Of course, he can't let Phasma see him caught off guard like this. He searches for an excuse, but nothing comes to mind, what with the baby and Phasma looking at him like that, why is she doing that?"

"Nevermind," she finally says. "I don't care. Just get that thing out of here." She points a gauntleted finger at the baby. "It's giving me a headache."

Right, then. He gets out of there and heads to his quarters, unsure what he's going to do when he gets there, but certain that anywhere is better than out in the open like this. It's embarrassing for him, the master of the Knights of Ren to be completely incompetent in the face of a baby. It's ridiculous.

The baby screams all the way back to his quarters, which has ceased being annoying and is now just plain infuriating. Seriously. Doesn't this thing need to breathe? He's halfway to just shaking until it stops. He could do it, too. His hands are in the right place, righ under its armpits. How satisfying would it be to just shake and shake until the endless noise finally stops?

But then the memory of Supreme Leader Snoke's orders surfaces. He is to take care of this thing. It isn't to be harmed under his care.

Damn.

Presumably this means he's not allowed to use the Force to shut it up, either.

_Damn._

Kylo heaves a sigh as he enters the passcode to his quarters and the doors slide open. He steps through and they close soundlessly behind him. Then he stops short. Because sitting in the center of his quarters is a wooden cradle, surrounded by a pile of what looks like disposable diapers. Off to one side is a table, the purpose of which he can only speculate.

Kylo is much, much too tired to deal with this now. He sets the baby down on his bed and drags the cradle over to the side of the room, then boes back and puts the baby in it. As soon as it leaves his hands, it stops screamind and reaches for its feet.

What, he isn't good enough for a baby?

But he's too tired to think about this right now. He just falls into bed, helmet, robe and all, and falls immediately asleep.  
***  
Han Solo is waiting for him when he opens his eyes.

"What is this?" Kylo asks, wary. Han looks the same as the last time he's seen him, which is impossible because the last time he saw Han Solo was on Starkiller base. That was the last time anyone had seen him.

Han says nothing, just stares at him with eyes that see too much and know too much and-

"What do you want?" he shouts, voice ringing against boundaries he cannot see. They are standing in the forest on Takodana, and then they are on the bridge at Starkiller base. He shivers in spite of himself. It's cold here, thought it had never been when the place existed. He looks back up, and Han Solo is close enough to touch.

He reaches up as if to touch Kylo's cheek, the same way he'd done when-

(the light, so dim and then suddenly red)

(the stumble, the look of shock on Han Solo's face when-)

(the silent scream across the Force)

(the hand, still warm on his cheek)

(the body falling, falling, falling)

Kylo pulls back, takes a step away from his father. "No," he says, but he word catches in his throat on the way out.

Then suddenly, a shrill, piercing cry, and he starts awake, sitting up straight in the bed. The screaming isn't his own, which throws him for a moment until his remembers the baby. He staggers out of bed towards the crade, his mind hazy with sleep and ears ringing with the baby's shrieks.

It's two in the morning. What is his life?

He kneels next to the rib, where it's red faced and crying, and wraps his fingers around two of the wooden slats. "What?" he demands, the filter making the word come out in a growl. The thing screams louder, this time in fear.

Kylo reaches up and unclasps the helmet, letting it fall to the floor with a clank. "What do you _want_?" he says, well aware how desperate he sounds.

Amazingly, the noise stops. The baby's eyes widen, and it sits up and reaches for him with one chubby hand. Kylo lifts a hand to bat it off, but the baby grabs hold of one of his fingers in its fist.

He tugs experimentally, and yeah, no, it's not letting go of him. Actually, it giggles at his attempts to break its grip. And okay. He can totally get his finger free any time he wants. He totally can; he is the master of the Knights of Ren and a powerful Force user in his own right; he can get a baby to let go of him if he really wants to.

Kylo gives another tug, and the baby still won't let go of his finger. Yep. Powerful Force user. Totally.

**Author's Note:**

> Lol sorry not sorry. More chapters to come, but A03 is being weird and buggy right now.


End file.
